Posts Tagged ‘Marg Helgenberger’

1 Dracula
Series debut: The mysterious title character, played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers from The Tudors, arrives in Victorian England, posing as an American entrepreneur keen on modern science.When: Friday on NBC, Global

2 CSI
Marg Helgenberger returns as Catherine Willows for the 300th episode of this venerable series. Fittingly, the team works on a cold case that dates back to 2000.When: Wednesday on CBS, CTV

3 Grimm
Third-season debut: Now that Juliette (Bitsie Tulloch) knows about Nick (David Giuntoli), he can bring her into the fold as his powers – and the danger – have increased exponentially.When: Friday on NBC, CTV

5 Witches of East End
Ingrid (Rachel Boston) struggles with the consequences of a spell, while Joanna (Julia Ormond) tries to uncover just who is framing her.When: Sunday on Lifetime

6 The Illegal Eater
Series debut: Steven Page, formerly of Barenaked Ladies, investigates the kinds of underground restaurants where you go if you don’t have a million dollars.When: Tuesday on Travel & Escape

7 Bones
After eight and a half seasons, you cordially are invited to the wedding of Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz) and Temperance “Bones” Brennan (Emily Deschanel).When: Monday on Fox, Global

8 Ravenswood
This new spinoff series is set up in the Halloween episode of Pretty Little Liars, which airs immediately prior to the debut of the new show. Tyler Blackburn and Nicole Gale Anderson star.When: Tuesday on M3

9 The Middle
In the 100th episode of this underrated series, Frankie (Patricia Heaton) and Mike (Neil Flynn) agree to drive a giant cow float in their town’s 100th anniversary parade.When: Wednesday on ABC, Friday on City

10 The Carrie Diaries
Second-season debut: Through a series of surprising events, the young Carrie Bradshaw (AnnaSophia Robb) meets one of the greatest friends of her life. Heads up, Sex and the City fans.When: Friday on CW

Angie and her team – Detective Oscar Vega (played by Louis Ferreira), Detective Brian Lucas (played by Brendan Penny), Staff Sergeant Boyd Bloom (played by Roger Cross) and Dr. Betty Rogers (played by Lauren Holly) – spend each episode piecing together what happened. Therefore, until the very end, the team always is more “in the dark” than the audience, which already knows who committed the crime.

The first episode of Motive focuses on a creepy, picked-upon high school kid in a marching band (do Canadian high schools even have those? Isn’t that an American thing?).

When we first see the victim, an adult, he’s singing in a karaoke bar. The connection between the two, and the reasons for what occurs, certainly can’t be predicted or foreseen at first blush, so that’s a good thing.

I had a few different reactions to the debut episode of Motive.

First, it looks great. The production values are top-notch.

And I did like the two leads, Lehman and Ferreira. Lehman has kind of a Marg Helgenberger thing goin’ on, while veteran Ferreira is good in everything he does (including a recent guest spot on AMC’s Breaking Bad). However, I hope it’s not a pattern moving forward that Oscar thinks everyone is guilty and Angie thinks everyone is innocent.

Cinematography and characters aside, Motive‘s format can be disorienting when it comes to sustained attention.

I was interested in the first 10 minutes. I was interested in the last 10 minutes. But that left 20 minutes in the middle where I kind of drifted away, since I already knew who the killer was. It felt like there was some padding going on, and I’m not at all interested in the side story about Angie’s troubled teen.

Those middle 20 minutes also jump around in time, because much of the story has to be told through flashbacks. It never was confusing, that would be overstating it. But it can be a tad dizzying if you’re not right on top of it, which, as I stated earlier, is an issue.

Kudos to Motive for trying something new. A straight-forward police procedural in 2013 would seem at least five years behind the times.

What we’re about to find out is whether the world is open to a police procedural that doesn’t follow procedure.

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Bill has been a Sun columnist, reporter and editor for 22 years. Previously was in Sports as Toronto Raptors beat writer and NBA columnist, he joined Entertainment in 2005 as a television and music critic before moving exclusively to TV. Prior to the Sun, he worked at the Montreal Daily News, the Orillia Packet & Times and the Sherbrooke Record.